Cleaning & Organizing
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Help! Cat Smell
We bought a new house in Sept. It has everything we wanted and was a foreclosure so we got a really good deal. The one problem is the people before had cats and a lot of them (one neighbor said around 15). They left a cat smell behind that we thought was gone, after replacing the floors and disinfecting the sub floor. My mom and I are very smell sensitive and even we couldn't smell it.
Well within the last two weeks the smell is back. It's not as bad if i have candles burning and the windows open but I want it gone.
Have any of you been able to get rid of the cat smell for good? I'm afraid we made a big mistake buying this house and thinking we could get rid of the smell.
Thank you for your help.
Re: Help! Cat Smell
Some cats will urinate on walls. Could it be the dry wall?
Odor could have absorbed into the walls. Did you paint when you moved in? If not, use a good primer, like Kilz, to block odor and then repaint.
Also are you sure it is cat and not something else like mold, which smells really bad also.
I had that idea too.
They took the baseboards off when they replaced the floors. There was damage behind them. We scrub the wall behind with bleach, thinking the floor guys where going to put up new baseboards (the first guy we had said he was going to put up new baseboards, we thought it was common only to find out it's not) We are going to get new baseboards and bleach behind again. I also want to use that pet primer in the living room (where the worst smell is) when we paint this summer.
So you think that can help or is replacing the drywall the only option?
I would probably Kilz all the walls and repaint. It is possible that the smell is coming from outside. I'm not sure where you live, but it is cat mating season. Right around now, male cats go around spraying everything. We've had problems in past houses where feral cats have sprayed the outside of our house and when the sun hit the dried urine... ugh. You might also look into the product "Nature's Miracle". It is the best product I've found to get rid of pet odors. You can use it on carpet, furniture, I know people have used it straight on cement floors, clothing, bedding. I'd check the label to see if you can spray it on walls. You can get it at the big pet supply stores. I think I might have seen it at Target and the grocery now too. Good luck! Sorry you're having to go through this. You'll get it worked out though!
For all the work of removing the baseboards, cleaning them thoroughly enough to get most of the smell out, painting with special primer, etc, I would just go with replacing the drywall. Maybe not all the rooms at one time, but a least then you get get behind the wall, make sure it hasn't soaked all the way through... Good luck with the process, just don't doubt your house or your decision to buy it, it will become whatever you shape it to be.
It is unlikely that you will need to replace ALL the drywall. If the smell is concentrated in one location, you may need to replace that piece of drywall. As PP mentioned, Nature's miracle does a great job with cat odor. It sounds like you have removed (or did not have carpeting). So that cannot be the cause. There are multiple types of KILZ, look for the one that specifically says odor blocker and use in a ventilated room. It stinks to high heaven when you are putting it up.
If you are pregnant or someone who is pregnant comes to visit, leave a clear path to the bathroom. My pregnant friend stopped in unexpectedly. She needed a restroom at 6 mos preggrers that is rather normal. She needed the bathroom in multiple ways when she got a whiff of the KILZ. It works but boy does it stink.